Motara
Motara was a Po-Matoran who later became a Toa Mangai of Stone. Biography Early Life Similarly to most other Po-Matoran, Motara began his life on Spherus Magna. For a number of years, he aided in the early construction of the Matoran Universe with no worldly desires or true consciousness. After a considerable period of heavy labor, he was placed on an unknown island in the central Matoran Universe, alongside a significant population of other Matoran. He endeavored to carry out his purpose by maintaining his settlement to ensure the continued functionality of the Great Spirit. Shortly after the successful launch of the Matoran Universe, Motara gained true sentience due to Velika's tampering with the Matoran species. Although he continued his original task, Motara was imbued with emotions and became self-aware. Life as a Toa Some time after becoming a Toa of Stone, Motara was among the eleven Toa who answered the call to Metru Nui to combat the Kanohi Dragon. After a lengthy battle, the Toa emerged victorious and restrained the Rahi, thanks in no small part to the efforts of four Toa of Ice. Motara chose to stay on Metru Nui in an amalgamated team, which was comprised of Lhikan, Nidhiki, Tuyet, Naho, Marn, a Toa of Plant Life, and four Toa of Ice, charging themselves with defending the island in the absence of an existing Toa Team. Motara and his teammates were thus honored with the title of Toa Mangai. Around 3,500 years ago, in a period of Metru Nui's history where most of the Toa Mangai were taking part in missions outside the island's dome, Lhikan, Tuyet and Nidhiki were charged with defending the island alone while Motara was deployed on an unknown assignment. Growing increasingly paranoid in the absence of her teammates, Tuyet eventually caught word that a group of Dark Hunters had ransacked her former village in search of the Nui Stone, a powerful artifact that she had brought with her to Metru Nui. Convinced that the Dark Hunters would eventually make their way to Metru Nui and reclaim the Nui Stone from her, Tuyet set about a complex scheme to ensure her safety, murdering three Matoran in order to frame the Dark Hunters and compel Lhikan and Nidhiki to defeat them. With Lhikan growing wise to her deception, however, Tuyet was forced to reveal her possession of the Nui Stone and engaged her fellow Toa in combat, overwhelming the Toa of Fire with her sheer Elemental Powers. Unable to kill the leader of the Toa Mangai while empowered by the Nui Stone, however, the intervention of Nidhiki ensured Tuyet's downfall, notably resulting in the Nui Stone being shattered into shards and embedded in the Toa of Water's armor. Detained and imprisoned within the Coliseum, Tuyet would reside within a cell for several hours whilst Lhikan debated with Turaga Dume over her ultimate fate. During this time, however, the Order of Mata Nui grew privy to Tuyet's destructive potential and saw fit to study the Nui Stone fragments, dispatching Botar to abduct her overnight. With attitudes towards Toa taking an unsavory flavor across the Matoran Universe, the Dark Hunter organization notably began to grow in size, becoming a recognized power faction and a constant menace to Toa on a universal scale, establishing footholds in regions across the universe. Now confident in his claim to power, The Shadowed One became prideful, and sought a base of operations in Metru Nui. This period would thus witness numerous attempts from the Dark Hunters to win Metru Nui, both through political assassination of Turaga Dume and through clashes with the Toa Mangai, which Motara and his teammates were able to repel. After nearly three centuries of brewing tensions, the Toa/Dark Hunter War finally erupted, prompting a full-scale Dark Hunter invasion of Metru Nui. With Motara captured alongside the majority of the Toa Mangai and with the Dark Hunters poised to take over Metru Nui, however, Toa Naho was able to break free of captivity and slip into the Silver Sea. Escaping the Metru Nui dome, Naho was able to reach the island that had originally been inhabited by Toa Lesovikk, which had since been repopulated, entreating the local Turaga for aid repelling the Dark Hunters. With the Turaga proving hesitant to involve himself in the affairs of Metru Nui, Naho was ultimately able to persuade him to directly confront the island's grim past, ensuring that one hundred Toa would be send to join the war effort and repel the Dark Hunters from Metru Nui's shores. Returning through the Sea Gates, Toa Naho led the legion of Toa in an open attack against the invading Dark Hunters, orchestrating the release of the Toa Mangai and shifting the conflict in favor of the Toa. Under Lhikan's leadership, the Toa Mangai devised offensive strategies to repel the various Dark Hunter attacks, notably driving "Tyrant" into the Silver Sea and defeating "Vengeance". During this time, Motara endeavored to defend the Matoran of Metru Nui from the conflict. However, swayed by the temptations of a Dark Hunter known as Lariska, Toa Nidhiki come to betray his fellow Toa, orchestrating a Dark Hunter ambush around Lhikan's command squadron in the Canyon of Unending Whispers. However, having tailed Nidhiki the previous night, Lhikan had grown privy to the deception and made preparations for Toa reserves to make landfall in Metru Nui that morning, flanking the Dark Hunters and ambushing them once Nidhiki revealed his true intentions. With Lariska vocalizing the Dark Hunter surrender, the Toa Mangai allowed the Dark Hunters to leave unharmed in return for the Makoki Stone, along with the added conditions that the Dark Hunters never return, and that they would take the traitor Nidhiki away with them. Present for the humiliating defeat of the Dark Hunters, Motara and his teammates witnessed the exile of Nidhiki from their vantage point in the Canyon of Unending Whispers. Death Over the course of the following century, the Brotherhood of Makuta's unsavory agenda became clearer to the broader citizenry of the Matoran Universe. With the total Toa population beginning to see drastic decreases in size and with Mata Nui now distinctly absent, Makuta Teridax enacted the first phase of his Grand Plan, capturing Turaga Dume, placing him in a Matoran Pod, and assuming his form. Fearful that the Toa Mangai and their Chronicler companion would be his unraveling much in the same way as the escape of his Toa Hagah team had proved an eternal thorn in his side, Teridax chose to accelerate his agenda by terminating the local Toa. With Nidhiki now mutated into a larger, arachnid form and begrudgingly serving as a member of the Dark Hunters, Teridax entreated The Shadowed One for Dark Hunter assistance in an operation on Metru Nui. Dispatched alongside Krekka and "Eliminator", Nidhiki ensured that the Toa Mangai remained separated and gathered intelligence on the Great Kanoka Disks. During this time, Motara was called away to help close the Sea Gates of Metru Nui, unwittingly placing the island in quarantine and preventing any outside forces from opposing Teridax's scheme. After completing this task, Motara was engaged by "Eliminator", who overpowered him and eventually moved to kill the Toa of Stone, using his Lightning capabilities to ensure that he could not be revived in the Red Star. Abilities and Traits Prior to becoming a Toa, Motara was unable to fully access his powers. Instead, he possessed a degree of enhanced endurance and physical strength. As a Toa of Stone, Motara could create, control, and absorb Stone. This also gave him the ability to mentally conjure and move rock formations, trigger landslides and fissures, and entitling him to greater durability than most other Toa. Furthermore, Motara possessed a natural muscular frame and was considerably stronger than most of his teammates. Mask and Tools Throughout his time spent as a Toa, Motara wore a Great Mask of Biomechanics, a Kanohi that allowed the user to manipulate or control mechanical targets depending on the complexity of the target device and the proximity to the bearer. As a Toa, Motara wielded a Stone Sword, an ornate melee weapon bequeathed to him by an unknown Toa. Using the Stone Sword, Motara was able to channel his Elemental Powers. Forms Trivia *Several years after his death, Motara would be honored by the Toa Metru, who notably named the Motara Desert of Po-Wahi in his memory. Appearances *''Cataclysm'' - To Be Written Category:Toa Category:Toa Mangai Category:Toa of Stone